About The Astronauts

We are a small independent game developer located in Warsaw, Poland. Before The Astronauts, some of us worked on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm.

Our latest project is Witchfire, a dark fantasy first person shooter set in an alternative world in which witches are real and very dangerous – but so are you, witchhunter.

Our first game was a weird fiction mystery titled The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The game has won many awards, including BAFTA, and we sold over one million copies. It’s available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Click here for more details.

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Witchfire, a Year After Reveal

What's the status of the game? Also, announcing weekly development updates.

What's the status of the game? Also, announcing weekly development updates.

During the 300 years of European witch hunts that started in the 15th century, tens of thousands of women, men and children lost their lives due to superstition, politics and profit.

But that’s our history and our world.

In the world of Witchfire, witches are real.

And you are the punishing hand of the Church.

That’s the core idea behind the game, even if things are not as black-and-white as one might think.

If you have issues with the video clips or just want the source, here. The clips can also be watched in lower quality on Imgur.

There will be some sightseeing…

Witchfire is a first person shooter focused on challenge and mastery. We’re trying to make sure it’s accessible and there are many roads to the ultimate victory but you’ll still need to prove your witch-hunting skills if you’re after all of its secrets.

To get one thing out of the way: Witchfire is not a story-based game. There’s lore to discover and decipher, but no cut-scenes to follow. A project like that – e.g. like Bulletstorm, a game that some of us directed – would be bordering on impossible for a tiny team like ours. More importantly, though, the heart of the game is somewhere else. We will talk about it more as soon as we’re ready.

…you will meet interesting strangers…

Speaking of which, where are we with Witchfire? Why were we silent for a year?

Nothing dramatic is happening. We’re working on the game every day. It’s just that eight people, even with the help of some amazing outsourcers and a fantastic engine (UE4) can’t really move much faster with a project like this. We’re looking for just one more programmer but we still want to remain a tight team for the time being. This might change in the future, when we have all features of the game fully proven.

A lot of asset work has been done. We have dozens of guns ready, they’re being animated at this very moment. We have enough modelled and animated enemy models to make a significant portion of the game, and one of us is currently finishing the work on the core AI that will govern them all. For two years now, the graphic artists have been working on the map assets mostly using the photogrammetry tech. The actual levels are being meshed. The main features have all been designed and just wait until their implementation time comes.

…and you’ll knock on doors to meet friendly neighbours.

Still, we wouldn’t expect the game to come out in 2019. However, 2020 sounds reasonable.

So what happens now?

We’re starting Witchfire Development Updates. Witchfire Diaries. Witchfire Wednesdays. Whatever you want to call it, every Wednesday we will reveal something new about the game, show behind the scenes stuff showing how games are made (so expect a lot of crude assets, basic animations and other dirty things), or explain the design ideas. For example, we will talk why it took us a day to have a functional gun, but three months to have a great feeling one, and we will show at how we arrived at the final form of a creepy monster after the first sketch that just made us laugh.

Every time an entry is published, we will announce it both on our Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to ask us questions, we will try to answer them in one of the next posts.